Essay on Romeo and Juliet Tragedy of Character or Tragedy of Fate?

Sierra Davenport Mr. Gingery CP English 1 6 March 2013 Romeo and Juliet Tragedy of Fate or Tragedy of Character Romeo and Juliet is a story of a forbidden love, written by William Shakespeare. Some may say that it is a tragedy of fate. Fate is defined as forces outside of your control that makes things happen. An example of fate is when you miss your bus and meet the person who will turn out to be your spouse while you’re standing on the platform waiting on the next bus. I think Romeo and Juliet is the exact opposite of fate, they undoubtedly took things into their own hands.

The tragedy in this story didn’t start until Romeo killed Mercutio, like I said; fate is when the forces outside of your control take action. Romeo was definitely in control of this situation, initially if Romeo didn’t get in between the fight with Tybalt and Mercutio, Mercutio would have never died and as a result Romeo wouldn’t have to feel the need to stab Tybalt for the death of his friend. Even if Tybalt did kill Mercutio, Romeo didn’t have to take matters in his own hands and kill Tybalt himself if he just waited, then Prince Escalus would have kept his word and had Tybalt either imprisoned or killed.

So this was definitely character. Another component that led to this tragedy that could have been prevented is when Juliet asked Friar Laurence to help her to get out of marrying Count Paris. Now the Friar, knowing that Juliet was desperate enough to do anything, decided that this was his chance to get himself in the clear and have Juliet pose as a dead person so that he wouldn’t have to marry the same person twice, which I’m pretty sure wasn’t allowed back then.

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He being the Friar would have had to tell people that he already married Juliet to Romeo and that he couldn’t re-marry Juliet while she was still married to Romeo. So he decided on taking the easy way out and gives Juliet a potion that puts her in such a deep sleep that she will appear dead. Juliet being desperate, willingly and without hindrance agreed to take the potion the night before the wedding so that it would stay in effect till the day after the wedding was suppose to be arranged.

There was a million and one ways to go about getting out of marrying Paris, this was by far the easiest but it resulted into Romeo believing she actually was dead. Lastly, the biggest tragedy of all, Romeo gets word from Balthasar that Juliet is dead and because Friar John wasn’t able to get Friar Laurence’s letter to Romeo explaining the plan and what was going to happen, Romeo, completely naive, goes to the apothecary to get a poison to commit suicide to be with Juliet on the other side.

He rides to Verona from Mantua to be beside Juliet when he kills himself and not knowing that Friar Laurence was coming, he says his last words and drinks the poison. When Juliet wakes and sees Romeo lying on the ground dead she is so dumbfounded and speechless that she was unable to leave, but because the watch was coming the Friar had to leave. So when Juliet was alone she took Romeo’s dagger and out of pure character she stabs herself and she dies. This is Romeo and Juliet, the tale of a forbidden love.

But as their inexorable love turned into a tale of adversity their distance began to sunder because of the acts of transgression, and the tyrannous consequences lead these star-crossed lovers aloof. The poison that ended the lives of Romeo and Juliet and ended the feud between the Montague’s and Capulet’s was definitely not fate. So therefore the tale written by William Shakespeare was indeed a terrible tragedy of character. “Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide. Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy seasick, weary bark. Here’s to my love! ” - Romeo Montague

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